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If you smooth the thing out, you lose a lot of the character that a track like Barcelona has

Lewis Hamilton

"The older the surface, the more character there is in a surface.

"If you smooth the thing out, you lose a lot of the character that a track like Barcelona has.

“I always relate it to like a house. A brand new house has got no character, but if you go and buy an old house, it’ll always have a little bit more history and a little bit more character.

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Lewis Hamilton recorded the quickest lap time of the week in Mercedes

"I like a track that is a bit more dated in terms of surface.

“You go to drivers' briefings and there are constantly complaints of bumps, but you can manoeuvre around bumps and you can brake a bit off line, or you have to set the car up to deal with it better in terms of ride.

"But that’s where the character of a circuit is - you flatten it all out and it's got a bunch of corners but it’s missing something."